Apparatus for cleaning out pipe-lines



(No Model.)

B. F. WARREN.

APPARATUS FOR CLEANING OUT PIPE LINES. No. 329,605. Patented Nov. 3,1885.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN F. WARREN, OF PHILADELPHIA, ASSIGNOR TO B. D. BENSON,

OF TITUSVILLE,

APPARATUS FOR CLEA PENNSYLVANIA.

NING OUT PIPE-LINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 329,605, dated November3,1885. Application filed February 12, 1894. Serial No. 120,458. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN F. WARREN, of the city and county ofPhiladelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Apparatus for Clearing Out Pipe-Lines forTransporting Petroleum, of which improvements the follow ing is aspecification.

It has long been known that the walls and tubing of oil-wells becomegradually coated, with accumulations of paraffine, which ob struct notonly the operation of the well, but the flow of the oil into it, andseveral patents have been taken out for devices intended to remove suchobstructions.

The more recent construction and use of pipe-lines through whichpetroleum is trans ported a long distance has developed a similaraccumulation of paraffine or analogous accretions upon the interiorsurface of these pipes, and when the obstruction thus occasioned hasbecome so, serious as to sensibly diminish the carrying capacity of theline it is necessary to clean out the pipes. It is of course impossiblepractically to do this in any of the ways that might be availed of underordinary circumstances where the pipes could be readily taken up, ordisconnected and connected again at short intervals. It is equallymanifest that the devices above referred to for scraping the verticalwalls or continuous straight tubing of an oil-well are not available ina pipe-line, not only on account of the great length of its sections,but because, while in general approximately horizontal, the pipe-line isnecessarily adapted to the irregularities which are met with in itscourse-as, for example, in carrying it across a stream or a wide ravine.

Itis the object of my invention to provide an apparatus which willeffectually remove the accumulations of paraffine or analogousaccretions from the interior surface of a pipe line and insure itsdischarge at the open end without any necessity of taking up the pipesor disconnecting the line between the extremities of a section. Inattaining this object I found it necessary to have a detached apparatuswhich could be put into one end of a section of the pipe-line and leftwithout any attachment or connection with anything else,

to work its own way, under the pressure of It must be or enabled topermit the detached accretions to be swept along before it and keptmoving forward in advance of it, instead of massing up and clogging orbecoming jammed in the bore of the pipe and impeding or obstructing theprogress of theapparatus.

In the accompanying drawings I have rep-, resented my improved apparatusin a form which I have found practically efficient, and

which embodies the essential features of my invention.

Figure 1 is a side view of the apparatus. Fig. 2 is an end elevationfrom the front, and Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the rear side of thedisk.

vThis apparatus consists, essentially, of a core or spindle, A,constituting the body of the apparatus, scrapers B, arranged around thebody and extending out therefrom so as to act upon the interior surfaceof the pipes, guides O, for keeping the body in position lengthwisecentrally in the pipe, and a disk or head, D, properly braced andsecured to the rear end of the core or body, as shown. These severalparts of the apparatus have respectively the following characteristics,which severally conduce to the effect of their combined operation andgive the desired result. The core or body is light and strong, andshould be for a sixinch pipe about two and a half inches in diameter andabout nine inches long. It may be made of wood; or it may be acylinderof 7 They are made of stout elastic Wire attached to the core andarranged spirally around it,

as shown in the drawings, their number being that while they projectfrom the core or body,

so as tobear against the surface of the interior of thepipe, their freeouter ends will yield and bend down readily, so as to accommodatethemselves to any contraction or irregularity in the pipe, and Willspring out again after passing such contraction or irregularity, andthus always tend to keep the core and-scrapers in a substantiallyhorizontal position or central in the bore of the pipe. The disk or headis made of flexible materialsuch as leatherand .re-enforced or braced bysectional backings' or plates, d d d, Fig. 3, separated from each other,as in the instance shown, and by a central plate, d, all being securedto the out side of the disk. The disk is quartered by simple slits outbetween the sectional backing-plates and extending from the outer edgeof the .central plate, d'*, to the circumference of the disk, inorderthat either of the sections into which the disk is thus divided mayyield backward,.so as to allow the apparatus to pass any obstructionthat would otherwise stop it, while, on the other hand, the platesv givethe disk sufficient stiffness to withstand the pressure of the column ofoil upon it from behind. This disk is of a diameter less than that ofthe interior of the.pipefor example, about five and a half inches indiameter for a six-inch pipe-and is secured to the rear'end of the bodyor core with its backing-plates outward,

as shown in Figs. 1 and 3.

The operation of the apparatus is as follows: It is put into the pipe atthe head of the section to be cleared with the front end foremost, sothat it will travel in the direction of the flow of the oil, the guides,asalready stated,

tending to keep itin substantially a horizontal position or centralin'the bore of the pipe, the disk at the-rear end also tending toprevent its getting far out of line in the pipe. The pressure of theflowing column of oil now acting upon the disk or head of the apparatusforces it forward, and the scrapers or swabs loosen and detach theparaffine as they are forced along under the pressure of the oil columnupon the disk, the guides also acting to loosen the paraffine, which isflaky when detached, and is held in suspension in the oil. As there isan annular space between the disk and the interior 'of the pipe, andopen spaces between the guides and scrapers, the oil, being underpressure, will flow around the disk through this annular space fasterthan the apparatus moves forward, and this annular and comparativelyrapid flow of the oil in advance of the disk serves to wash the detachedparaffine along ahead of the apparatus, preventing its lodging andclogging by carrying it off gradually, and thus clearing the way for theapparatus, as the apparatus loosens and detaches the parafline from thepipe.

If the apparatus meets a contraction or abend in the pipe, the guidesand scrapers will yield, as already described, so as to pass it, andthen will immediately resume their extended positions; so, also, if thedisk encoun ters an obstruction either of its sections will bend backunder the resistance, so that it will pass the point of difticulty,andthe pressure of the column of oilwill then force the deflected sectionof. the disk forward again to its place, and the apparatus will resumeits clearing ac-' tion. In this way I have successfully operatedthisapparatus through a pipe-line section of. nine miles in. length. It isof course to be understood that in constructing a pipeline due careshould be taken tohave the pipes 'free from any such solid obstructionaswould be impassible to the apparatus, the obstructions with which myclearing apparatus is, adapted to deal being ,such only as maybe,accidentally carried in with the oil or incidentally occasioned by theuse of the line.

Having thusdescribed the nature and ,object of my invention,.whatI claimas new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

An improvement in apparatus for clean ing out a pipe-line fortransporting petroleum, such apparatus consisting of the core or body,the heador disk. the wire guides, and scrapers, combined with a pipecontaining flowing liquid and operating in combination, sub stantiallyas and for the purposesv described.

BENJAMIN F. WARREN.

Witnesses:

WM. H. MYERS, v I. WALTER DOUGLASS.

